Imposing Print Jobs Across a Print Medium for Frame-By-Frame Printing

1. A method for imposing several print jobs across a lane of a print medium web for frame-by-frame printing, each print job comprising a respective number of patterns to be printed, the method comprising: setting a frame rewind distance (FRD) to a length of the longest pattern; setting a frame repeat length (FRL) to a difference between a frame length and the FRD; for a first frame of the frame-by-frame printing: imposing patterns of one of the print jobs along a length of the lane, and preserving, as a respective gap length for the lane in a second frame, a distance that a tail end of the one of the patterns extends beyond the FRL; and for the second frame of the frame-by-frame printing, imposing patterns of one of the print jobs along a length of the lane beginning at the respective preserved gap length.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the imposing comprises imposing patterns of multiple print jobs along the length of the lane.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising imposing patterns of one print job in one lane and patterns of another print job in another lane.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising producing a data file comprising the imposition of print jobs on the web of print medium, frame-by-frame, and the respective gap lengths for each frame.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the data file comprises a table with the respective gap lengths and a Portable Document Format file with one page and/or multiple pages for each frame, or a JPG, JPEG, or other image format file(s) for each frame.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each print job comprises a respective number of identical patterns to be printed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the gap length comprises a sum of a gap length preserved from a prior frame and a combined length of the patterns imposed along the length of the lane, minus the FRL.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the combined length of the patterns includes a combined length of the patterns of multiple different print jobs imposed across the length of the lane.

9. A system for frame-by-frame printing of several print jobs on a web of print medium, each print job comprising patterns to be printed on one of multiple longitudinal lanes of the web, the system comprising instructions that cause a processor to: set a frame repeat length (FRL) to a difference between a frame length and a selected frame rewind distance (FRD); for each lane of the frame-by-frame printing: impose patterns of one of the print jobs along a length of the lane beginning at a gap length calculated from a previous frame, and calculate, as a gap length for a next frame, a distance that a tail end of the one of the patterns extends beyond the FRL; and print the imposed print jobs on the web frame-by-frame, wherein after printing each frame, the web of print medium is rewound by the selected FRD.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the FRD is selected based on a length of the longest pattern of the several print jobs.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein patterns of multiple different print jobs are imposed along a length of the lane.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein patterns of multiple different print jobs are imposed along the length of the lane within a single frame.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein one print job is imposed in one lane and another print job is imposed in another lane, and/or multiple prints jobs are imposed on multiple lanes.

14. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium for frame-by-frame printing of several print jobs on a web of print medium, each print job comprising patterns to be printed on one of multiple longitudinal lanes of the web, the medium comprising instructions that, in response to execution by a processor, cause the processor to: set a frame repeat length (FRL) to a difference between a frame length and a length of the longest pattern of any of the several print jobs; for each lane of the frame-by-frame printing: impose patterns of one of the print jobs along a length of the lane beginning at a gap length calculated from a previous frame, and calculate, as a gap length for a next frame, a sum of the gap length calculated from the previous frame and a combined length of the patterns imposed along the length of the lane, minus the FRL; and print the imposed print jobs on the web frame-by-frame.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, comprising instructions to, after printing each frame, rewind the web of print medium by the length of the longest pattern of any of the several print jobs.